Lease Extension Excessive Solicitor Charges

andybranford

Hi all

Wondering if I could get some advice. We are virtually at the end of a lease extension and the section 42 notice didn't get responded in time by the freeholder. Good news for us because we had to agree the extension under our valuation which was lower than expected. The problem is my solictors extra charges seem very high for doing in my opinion not a lot of extra work. There seems to be an array of 10 min charges which are not clear what they relate too. I asked for a breakdown as this was not provided with the original invoice and I was charged another 10 mins for the privilege. These 10min charges amount to £27 and so far we are upto around £800. The original lease extension quote only came to £1200. I Was in regular contact with the freeholder as I had his number so most of the chasing was done my end but at every opportunity the solicitor kept sending chases letters which was unnecessary as verbal contact seemed the best way to deal with my freeholder. At one point I actually instructed my solicitor not to send anymore chaser letters as I was in regular contact via phone. He got very snotty about that and just ignored my request. I feel unfairly treated here I wonder what your thoughts are?

SmashedAvacado

Solicitors don’t sell products - they sell their time. If you contact them then they are spending their time on you. Typically they record their time in 6 minute Units it’s but 10 minutes is not unusual.

£27 for 10 mins is cheap. I charge around £800 an hour.

That being said they shouldn’t be charging you for the time they spend dealing with you querying invoices.

If you want to have a successful relationship with them you need to agree a very clear basis of charging and payment. You don’t appear to have done that.

andybranford

Thanks for your reply.

There hourly charge rate is £225 ph. They did state this in an email when they knew extra work would have to be completed. This figure was made clear but the terms and conditions of what they charge for wasn't? I had no idea every email would be chargeable. Even for very short answers.

SmashedAvacado

If you want to use them efficiently then cut down your correspondence with them, provide them with consolidated information in fewer emails and provide all documents in one go to avoid them having to do more than necessary.